By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — The Westport Journal’s roundtable discussion on the future of downtown Westport was attended Wednesday by more than 100 people with plenty of ideas and questions bouncing between three panelists and the audience.

Doug Weber, Westport Journal’s publisher, called Westport a town “with an amazing retail legacy that we cherish.” The goal of the roundtable was to “discuss what the town can do going forward” to alleviate parking problems, heavy traffic and other concerns downtown, Weber said before introducing the panelists.

The panelists were: Torrey D. Brooks, president of Brooks, Torrey & Scott Inc., whose family owned the Brooks Corner shopping center for many years; Jennifer Johnson, Representative Town Meeting member from District 9, which encompasses the downtown area, and David Waldman, developer whose David Adam Realty owns a portfolio of Westport commercial properties, including Sconset Square and Bedford Square.

Among the different views presented during the roundtable, some agreed that Westport’s parking problems are not very different than decades ago. “Basically, nothing much has changed,” said Brooks. He believes that parking management, such as paid parking and varied pricing for parking spaces linked to their distance from the core downtown area — a recommendation also made in a recent consultant’s study of downtown parking — would be an improvement more beneficial than adding parking spaces.

Johnson agreed. “Why can we not move forward with paid parking?” she asked. She also said she believes it is important to re-introduce public transportation between the railroad station in Saugatuck and downtown.

Waldman said the charm and history of Westport, as well as the lack of developable properties, impose limits on what can be done when plans for a parking structure or other major changes are considered.

“Westport is a New England community that is locked in with [historic] buildings” that were built as early as the 1800s that can’t be razed, he said. “There’s not a lot of land left.” 

Instead of building a parking deck, “get paid parking in the center of town and have it get less expensive as you move farther away. Parking management becomes as important as parking capacity,” he said, agreeing with Brooks.

Citizen concerns about downtown parking, Hamlet project

When the forum was open for public questions, Sal Liccione, RTM member also from District 9, asked if the proposed Hamlet development in Saugatuck “will help or hurt downtown?”

Waldman said that although he would not give a definite opinion on the large development plan, he believes that the Hamlet project would “not impact a successful downtown.” He added, however, that he would like to see the proposed Hamlet project “address issues of scale.”

Another audience member, resident Nancy Anderson, commented that she is concerned that adding a parking deck would create more traffic instead of reducing it, as cars heading in and out of the structure might block nearby streets. 

Ray Brody, also a resident, said that with all the ideas floating around, “We need to prioritize. If you don’t prioritize, you’ll never go anywhere,” he said.

“This town is hung up on consultants,” he added. Westport has spent more than $2 million on consultants, he claimed. “And there is nothing to show for it. … Just do it.”

 As the forum came to a close, Lucy Ambrosino, Westport resident and former New Yorker, said she “never had a problem finding a parking space” downtown and that no one in town wants to walk any distance to a parking space. In New York City, motorists may consider a parking space three blocks away a good spot, she said.

Waldman agreed. Parking in Westport “is really not a problem,” he said. The town has a low commercial vacancy rate and commercial property garners as much as $100 per square foot. “Nothing is wrong with downtown Westport … Westport’s downtown has been successful.”

Brooks’s ending comment was that, in the end, the issue of downtown parking is simply “a question of giving the customers what they want.” Johnson said many ideas about parking downtown have been considered, including from people with opposing views and different solutions. “It depends on who you talk to,” she said.

Matthew Mandell, executive director of the Westport-Weston Chamber of Commerce, said that many of the questions and responses at the forum have been under discussion at meetings of the Downtown Plan Implementation Committee, and are outlined on the town website. He invited anyone who wants to know more about those plans to attend a DPIC meeting. The next one is at 8:30 a.m. Thursday in Town Hall.

“Be part of the process,” Mandell urged the audience. 

Westport Journal’s roundtable discussion was sponsored by the Westport real estate company KMS Team at Compass.